XXIII-XXIV. ÂFRÎN PAIGHAMBAR ZARTÛST AND VÎSTÂSP YAST.

'God taught the Zendávasta to Zartusht—a sublime work . . . . God said to Zartusht, "Go and before Sháh Gushtásp read this book, that he may come into the faith . . . . keep all my counsel and repeat it word by word to Sháh Gushtásp 1." '

Zartusht, in obedience to God, went to the court of Gushtásp: 'He came forward and called down a blessing on the Shâh 2.' Then he read to him the Zandávasta and said: 'Learn its statutes and walk therein. If your desire is towards its laws, your abode shall be in the paradise of heaven. But if you turn away from its commandments, you shall bring down your crowned head to the dust. Your God will be displeased with you, and will overthrow your prosperous condition. At the last you shall descend into hell, if you hear not the counsel of the Almighty 3.'

These lines of the Zartusht-Namah are a summary of the following two Yasts. The first, entitled 'The blessing of the prophet Zartûst,' contains the words of blessing addressed by Zarathustra when appearing before the king. These words seem to have followed a similar blessing pronounced by Gâmâspa 4, the prime minister of Vîstâspa 5.

Yast XXIV contains the exhortations of the prophet to the king to follow and closely adhere to the Law of Mazda. It is a counterpart to the XIXth Fargard of the Vendîdâd, as Zarathustra plays here the same part to Vîstâspa as Ahura does there to Zarathustra. It is, therefore, a summary of the Law, of the duties it

enforces and of the rewards it promises. This accounts for the strange disconnection apparent in it, which makes it a crux interpretum, as, besides the very corrupt state of the text, the chief difficulty of this Yast arises from the fact that many passages in it are incomplete quotations from the Vendîdâd, or allusions to statements therein 1, which, when supplied, help a good deal to relieve this Yast from its apparent state of utter incoherence.

For this translation I was able to avail myself of a Pahlavi translation, of which a copy was kindly lent to me by Mr. West. That translation is apparently of late date and often manifestly wrong; yet it was very useful to me in several passages, besides its giving a Zend text generally more correct and more correctly divided than the text in Westergaard's edition 2.

Yast XXIII was originally no independent Yast, being nothing more than the beginning of Yast XXIV, detached from it, with one slight alterations and inversions.

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XXIII. ÂFRÎN PAIGHAMBAR ZARTÛST.

1. 'I am a pious man, who speaks words of blessing.'

—'Thou appearest unto me full of Glory.'

And Zarathustra spake unto king Vîstâspa, saying: 'I bless thee, O man! O lord of the country! with the living of a good life, of an exalted life, of a long life. May thy men live long! May thy women live long! May sons be born unto thee of thy own body!

2. 'Mayest thou have a son like Gâmâspa, and may he bless thee as (Gâmâspa blessed) Vîstâspa (the lord) of the country 3!

5. 'May ten sons be born of you 1! In three of them mayest thou be an Âthravan! In three of them mayest thou be a warrior! In three of them mayest thou be a tiller of the ground 2! And may one be like thyself, O Vîstâspa!

326:8 One belonging to the Âthwya family, of which Thraêtaona was a member. All of them bore names that show them to have been rich in cattle: Pûr-tôrâ, Sôk-tôrâ, Bôr-tôrâ, &c. ('one with abundant oxen, with useful oxen, with the brown ox, &c.,' Bundahis, tr. West, XXXI, 7, note 8).

326:9 Pourus-aspa was the father of Zarathustra. His name means, 'He who possesses many horses,' πολύ-ιππος.